Worst Case Scenario: Madhouse
by clcman
Summary: After a disastrous recon mission, the Team struggles to recuperate. But when two of them go missing, the investigation brings them into a scenario that's the stuff of nightmares... Sequel to "Worst Case Scenario." Season 1 AU. Story two of nine.
1. The Island

**DISCLAIMER**: I do not own _Young Justice_. Anyone telling you otherwise should be shot on sight. Heck, don't even wait that long.

**IMPORTANT NOTE PLEASE READ BEFORE BEGINING**: This story is a SEQUEL to my previous Young Justice fanfic "Worst Case Scenario." Please read the original before reading this one. Not only will you have no freaking idea what's going on, but this story contains significant spoilers for the original, and trust me, you're going to want to experience the first one spoiler-free.

Thank you.

Worst Case Scenario: Madhouse

Chapter 1: The Island

**Gotham City**

**December 30, 02:38 EDT**

The island was quiet.

This was a rare occurrence. The various inhabitants of the island were as rambunctious as college students, often staying up late into the night. And their guardians could not let the inhabitants out of their sight.

The island had had this purpose, or something like it, for over one hundred and fifty years as the city had grown up around it. In some ways, things had changed. The fences were electrified. Cameras dotted the grounds. The numbers of guardians had continued to increase, as did the number of inhabitants.

But in many ways, things were the same as they had been in the beginning. As large and metallic as the city had become, the island's purpose had remained the same.

It was were the city sent its damned.

The island had seen many things. Many cruelties. Every form of insanity imaginable, both from the inhabitants and the guardians. The island did not care.

As long as the city existed, the island would be needed. And as long as the island was needed, it would continue to serve its purpose.

The island did not notice the small boat that appeared at one of its old, abandoned docks. The island did not notice the cameras watching the dock deactivate, the sensors shut down. The island did not see the five humans step from the boat and onto the rotting wood. It did not notice the woman in the white coat walking out to meet them.

The island did not care.

Arkham Island had seen far stranger things.

* * *

The woman looked around nervously as the new arrivals approached her. All of the cameras were down, but if somehow anyone saw them...

"Is everything prepared?" asked one of the men, bald with a short greyish beard, his grip tightening on the metallic attaché case handcuffed to his right arm.

"Y-yes, Professor Strange" said the woman. "I deactivated security on this part of the island just like you asked. No one knows you're here. The patient is in Interview Room 401. Security won't notice for at least an hour."

"Wonderful, Penelope" said Hugo Strange, smiling and adjusting his white lab coat. "A job well done."

"Is that all?" she asked.

"For the moment" said Strange, walking forwards. "Gentlemen, this is Dr. Penelope Young, a new resident psychologist at Arkham Asylum, and an old student of mine."

Young nodded. "I wouldn't be here without your help, Professor."

"No you wouldn't" said Strange, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I advise you to remember that. Now come along. We have business to attend to."

"I really should get back to my rounds" Young said.

"Nonsense" replied Strange. "It is the graveyard shift. You will not be missed if you take a minute to indulge me."

"A-alright" Young stammered. "Whatever you say, Professor."

"That's a good girl" said Strange, walking off of the dock. "Gentlemen?" he said to his companions, gesturing for them to follow. Young found them to be strange. They were wearing blue uniforms with caps just like the normal asylum guards, but one of them (the one with dirt-brown hair) looked around blankly, barely watching where he was stepping. The second one had dark hair and a short goatee and was carrying another metal case. He was glaring at her like he was suspicious. Yeah, because _she_ was the one breaking into a maximum-security mental facility. The third was a big guy (by normal human standards, not meta-human standards) with greyish hair and a beard. He was smiling to himself in a confident manner, which unnerved Young more than the suspicious guy. Lastly, there was the weird one. Guy number four had pale, almost greyish skin and weird catlike eyes. He seemed to be smiling to himself as well as he pulled down his cap, concealing any hair he might have.

"Are you coming, Penelope?" Strange asked.

"Uh, yes" said Young, realizing that she was staring. She hurried (while simultaneously trying to look like she wasn't hurrying) to catch up.

"Excuse me, Professor" she said, pulling him aside as they entered the hallways of the asylum. "I thought you said you just needed to speak with the patient for a covert research project. Why do you need _them_?" She pointed her head in the direction of the other four men.

The black haired man seemed to hear her and scowled, but Strange dismissed him with a wave of his hand.

"I assure you, Penelope, that nothing untoward is going on. We merely require some information that only this particular patient can provide."

"Y-you're not breaking him out, are you?" Young asked. "That wasn't a part of the deal!"

"Penelope, please, you're being hysterical" said Strange, putting a hand on her shoulder. "We are not hear to remove the patient from the asylum. He won't even leave the Interview Room."

"You promise?" Young asked, realizing that she was sounding like a six-year-old but not caring. If she assisted in a breakout at Arkham, her career would be over before it had begun.

"Of course" said Strange, giving a reassuring smile. "Would I lie to you?"

Young started to say "Of course not" but stopped halfway through. Strange ignored her and kept walking.

They had almost reached their destination when two uniformed guards rounded the corner.

"Dr. Young?" asked one of them, surprised and confused. "What are you doing down here? What's going on?"

The black-haired and grey-haired men both tensed, as if reaching for weapons, but Strange calmly put up his hand to stop them.

"Psimon?" he asked.

The grey-skinned guy gave another smirk and stepped forwards, pulling off his hat to reveal a somehow-transparent skull, brain clearly visible. Dr. Young suddenly got rather queasy.

"Psimon says that you both should go back to your patrol" the psychic said, staring at the guards. "You have not seen any of us, nor anything strange in this part of the facility."

"He's right" said one of the guards to the other, a blank look on his face. "I didn't see any of them."

"Neither did I" said the second guy. "Let's get back on patrol."

"Thank you both" said Psimon, replacing his cap as the two walked off as if nothing had happened. Dr. Young took a deep breath and willed her heart to slow back down to normal speeds. The black-haired man and grey-haired man relaxed, a cone of bluish ice retreating from the grey-haired man's hand. The last guy simply stood there, staring straight ahead and swaying slightly. He hadn't reacted the entire time.

"Come along" said Psimon, continuing on. The brown-haired man shuffled forwards, followed by the rest of the group.

Soon they reached their destination: Interview Room 401. It was really two rooms; the interview room proper and the observation room, equipped with a two-way mirror so that the doctors could keep an eye on the patient.

Said patient was a short man with disheveled blond hair, a standard orange Arkham jumpsuit and a small green top hat. Technically the hat was against regulations, the patient had proven so difficult to deal with without it that an exception was granted. He was sitting at a table (the only furniture in the room) looking around nervously.

"Well, let's not keep him waiting any longer" said Strange, walking up to the door. "Mr. Merlyn, Psimon, if you would take Penelope to the nearest security office and ensure that nothing... problematic occurs?"

"I-I really should stay here, with the patient" Young said.

"I assure you, Penelope, I have everything under control" said Strange. He paused for a moment. "I should warn you, though: These two do not have as much faith in you as I do. It would be wise to ensure that they had no reason to suspect that you might be a... problem."

"What would happen if they did?" Young asked, not sure if she wanted to know and VERY sure that she was getting into something way over her head.

"You know Psimon?" Strange said, gesturing to the other man. "Do you know what he is?"

Young took a breath. She'd never seen one in person, but the answer was obvious. "He's a psychic."

"Yes," agreed Strange. "Yes he is. So I would advise not upsetting him."

"Or he'll kill me with his mind?" Young asked. She really didn't want a yes answer, of course. She just wanted to be _absolutely_ sure of what a terrible idea agreeing to this was.

"Don't be ridiculous" said Strange, stepping closer to her. "He would never do something like that to a former student of mine. He'd merely dig into your brain, uncover all of your worst fears and memories and play them back until you snap and, well, the doctor becomes the patient." Strange's face was a mere inch from hers. Psimon stood behind him, smiling to himself. "But that's not going to happen, is it, Penelope?"

"No, Professor" she squeaked.

"Wonderful!" said Strange, clapping his hands in delight. "Now, you should hurry along. It's about time I spoke with the patient."

Young nodded meekly and walked away, Psimon and the black-haired man ("Merlyn") on either side. The grey-haired and brown-haired men stayed behind. The brown-haired one staring blankly at a wall. Young really didn't know what his problem was, but she had other things to worry about.

"You sure know how to get a point across, Strange" said Joar Mahkent, AKA Icicle Sr.

"She's a good girl" said Strange as Young, Merlyn and Psimon disappeared down the hall. "She just needs a little... reinforcement every so often."

"Well, you better get talking to our boy in there" said Icicle, gesturing towards the patient on the other side of the two-way mirror. "I'll keep an eye on mister talkative over here." The brown-haired man continued to stare at the wall, apparently oblivious to their conversation.

"Very well" said Strange, picking up his attaché case and entering the room.

"Pardon the delay, Mr. Tetch" he said, walking in and putting the case on the table.

"You're late, you're late!" said Tetch. "You're very, very late!"

"Now, now, Jervis" said Strange. "I am precisely on time." He wasn't, but Tetch, lacking a clock, had no way of knowing that.

"Ah, yes, yes" said Tetch. "Terribly sorry. Is it tea time yet?"

"You will get tea once we are finished" said Strange. "First, I require your assistance with a serious problem."

"Where is Alice?" Tetch shouted, slamming his hands on the table with surprising force. "I need to find Alice!"

"You will" said Strange, using the tone one would adopt with a stubborn child. "But first, you need to do some work. Can you do that, Jervis?"

"Hatter!" shouted Tetch. "I'm the Hatter!" He sat back down and crossed his arms for a second before perking up. "What's the work?"

"I'm glad you asked" said Strange, opening the case and sliding it over in front of Tetch. Inside were around forty red objects. The uninformed eye would mistake them for oddly-shaped gems of some sort. Jervis Tetch was not uninformed.

"Ooh, very nice, very nice indeed!" he said, picking one up and handling it gently. "What craftsmanship! Organic, yet with decent circuitry... and is that magic I smell?" He paused as if he'd lost track of his train of thought. "But what does this have to do with me?"

"Jervis," Strange said, leaning forwards. "My friends and I have created these devices to throw a _very special_ party for someone. The hardware is perfect. The only problem is the software. We are having difficulty programming them to properly react when they are used." Strange placed a small holocomputer on the table, revealing a complicated series of graphs and equations.

"Oh yes, oh yes, you're completely out of whack" said Tetch. "If you tried to use this, the Queen would have your head for sure!"

"Do you think you could help us with that?" Strange asked.

"I could" said Tetch. He was silent for a second, crossing his arms over his chest. "But I won't."

"Jervis..." said Strange, pulling something out a bag. "If you help us, I'll give you this." He lifted up a large silk top hat, twice as tall as Tetch's current one.

"Ooo! Give me, give me, give me!" Tetch begged.

"Only if you promise to help us" said Strange, holding the hat just out of Tetch's reach.

"I will! I will! I promise! I promise!"

"Very well, Jervis" said Strange, giving the shorter man his new hat. "Let's begin, shall we?"

Tetch nodded so vigorously that his new hat fell off, forcing him to grab and replace it. After readjusting it twice, he began looking over the holocomputer's code, making alterations here and there.

Strange looked back at the two-way mirror and gave Icicle a little nod.

The psychologist smiled. It wasn't quite the same as being Warden of the largest federal penitentiary in the country, but he was still contributing to the cause.

Operation Alcatraz was well underway.

* * *

_Hello and welcome to _Worst Case Scenario: Madhouse_, the sequel to _Worst Case Scenario: Not Madhouse_!_

_If you're here from the original, welcome back! If you haven't read the original yet, did you read the text in big bold print labeled "Important Note" at the top of the page or what? Go read that one, then come back. Seriously, it's better for everyone if you do. You can find it in my profile.  
_

_Also in my profile, you can find yet another crudely-edited-together-some-time-ago poster! Well, the DeviantArt link, anyways._

_This took a lot longer to start up than I thought it would. One of the big problems was figuring out who the last guy was on Strange's team. I needed someone with combat capabilities and some measure of leadership ability (or at least enough that the Light would put them in charge of grunts on a covert mission) and, ideally, a connection to the League of Shadows. Sportsmaster was the obvious choice, but I'd already just used him a ton in WCS, so I wanted someone else. Manta was out for the same reason and Deathstroke seemed like overkill for what's supposed to be a relatively minor role (introducing him into the universe properly requires him to be the MAIN antagonist of something). Plus, he usually works alone. I considered and dropped Lady Shiva, Bronze Tiger and David Cain (that last one 'cause then everyone would start begging for Cassandra, plus he's too similar to YJ Sportsmaster) before finally settling on Merlyn. After all, we don't have nearly enough archers in this series, do we?  
_

_Dr. Penelope "Penny" Young is a psychiatrist created for the 2009 video game Batman: Arkham Asylum, which this story takes a fair amount of inspiration from._

_In summary, I'm back and the fun can begin again!_

_Well, the fun for ME, at any rate..._


	2. Home Sweet Home

**DISCLAIMER**: I HAVE RETURNED from my _loooong_ and difficult quest throughout the wilds of the multiverse with the discovery of an inescapable and indisputable law of reality: I do not own _Young Justice_.

Chapter 2: Home Sweet Home

**Washington DC**

**December 30, 17:48 EST**

"Hey guys!" shouted Kid Flash. "Check it out!"

Wally West twirled a Frisbee in his hands before tossing it to Wolf. The canine leaped to intercept it, but before it could, Wally dropped into a sprinter's position and dashed forwards, vanishing into a blur. Just as Wolf's teeth closed around the disc, Wally snatched it away.

"What do you think?" Wally asked, returning to his initial position.

Artemis clapped slowly in the most sarcastic way possible. "Good job, West. You can outrun a Frisbee. Not bad for someone with super speed."

"Wally, that's great!" said M'gann, floating over. "I'm glad your speed is coming back."

"Yeah, I know what you mean" said Wally, stretching. _Man_, it felt good to be able to run that fast again. He could still feel (metaphorically, if not literally) the Brain's nanites in his bloodstream. The Atom had determined that they were designed to react only in the presence of a certain radio signal, much like the nanites affecting Zatanna. That had been a problem in the heart of Brain's base, but back in the Hall of Justice, things were as good as new.

"Do you have to mess with Wolf when you do that?" Superboy asked, flicking through TV channels on a nearby couch. He wasn't actually watching any TV, just changing the channels. It soothed him for some reason.

"Oh, come on, SB" said Wally, holding out the Frisbee for Wolf. "I'm just playing with him."

Wolf reached out to take the Frisbee, only for Wally to snatch it away again.

"I wouldn't recommend that" said Superboy.

"And why is tha-" Wally began to ask, only to be interrupted by Wolf jumping up, grabbing the speedster's jacket in its teeth and pulling him to the ground. Dazed, Wally simply lay there as Wolf put a paw on his back, triumphantly holding the disc aloft in its mouth. Artemis burst out laughing.

"That's why" said Superboy, a hint of a smile appearing on his face.

"Ha, ha, very funny" said Wally, getting up. "I'm sorry, boy" he said to Wolf. "I was just messing around."

Wolf looked at him before walking over, Frisbee still in its mouth. The white canine held the disc out towards Wally's hand.

"You wanna play some more fetch?" Wally asked, reaching for the Frisbee.

Wolf waited until the redhead's hand had nearly touched the disc before jerking its head away and running to the other side of the room. Artemis laughed again and even M'gann let out a giggle.

They were in civilian clothes for what felt like the first time in ages, scattered around the library of the (fortunately closed to tourists for New Year's) Hall of Justice, each teen giving their best attempt to relax and not think about all the hell they had gone through just a day earlier.

It wasn't easy.

Black Canary had talked with all of them, of course. And she'd scheduled more sessions for the next day. But for now, the theory was that they could support each other better than any adult could.

"Where is everyone else?" Red Arrow asked Aqualad as the two entered the room.

"Rocket is spending time with her family in Dakota City" replied Kaldur. "Zatanna is with her father and Robin is finishing up with Black Canary. Everyone else is here."

"He's been in there a long time" M'gann said. "Do you think everything is okay?"

"Of course everything's fine!" Wally said. "It's Robin! He's tougher than the rest of us put together!"

"He's also thirteen and spent over a day in enemy custody" Roy pointed out.

"Yeah, well, I was there, and let me tell you, he never stopped fighting once" declared Wally fast enough that he didn't realize that it wasn't quite true until after he had said it.

"That does not mean that he is unscarred from his experiences" Kaldur said. "Hopefully Black Canary will be able to assist him."

"Seriously, guys" said Wally, grabbing a bag of chips. "It's Robin. He's fine."

"Right?"

* * *

"Robin?"

"Huh?" Robin exclaimed, startled.

"Robin, is something the matter?" Black Canary asked. "You spaced out for a minute."

"Oh, right" said Robin. "Sorry. I've been… thinking about a lot of things."

"Care to talk about them?" Canary asked.

They were sitting in a side room of the Hall of Justice, the one designated the new 'Shrink Room' until Mt. Justice was operational again.

Robin sighed and sunk lower in his chair. "It's… it's a couple of things, I guess."

"I have time" Canary replied.

"Okay, it goes like this" Robin began. "I know I'm the youngest member of the Team, but I've been doing the hero thing the longest. The others look up to me, metaphorically speaking. I'm our Batman: no matter how crazy things get, I'm always supposed to have a plan and a gadget ready to get us out. When Kaldur's not available I AM the leader, official or not."

"And that's a big burden for you" Canary said.

"It's not that. Not exactly. I can handle the pressure fine. I'm great with pressure. The problem is, when things get tough, when they get as screwy as they did last night, I'm the only one who is able to… who isn't allowed to…"

"Panic?" Canary suggested.

"Something like that" Robin sighed. "Freak out, be afraid, whatever. I've always got to be the one who's willing to keep fighting."

"You're not allowed to show that you're scared" Canary realized.

Robin nodded.

"It's more than that. While Wally and I were in that base, while we were in custody and just waiting, I... I..."

"You what?" Canary asked, leaning forwards.

"I lost hope" Robin admitted. "I legitimately thought that we were going to die there. Worse, I knew that Savage planned to use us as bait to kill the League. And there was nothing I could do to stop it. I was powerless. No gadgets, no way to use my moves, no baddie to try psychological warfare on, no crime scene to solve. Just waiting in the dark for them to come back and use us to kill our friends and teammates. I hadn't felt that scared and... and... helpless in four years. Which may not be a long time for you, but I'm thirteen, so it's a lot for me."

"Robin," Canary said "everyone gets scared. That's perfectly normal. That's a part of being human. And powerlessness is the greatest fear of all. We humans hate it, but we feel it just the same. It's our job to overcome our fears so that we can protect others; to save them from that same fear. It's not easy, and it never gets easy, but it's clear that you have become very good at it."

"I'm not _that_ good" Robin said, leaning back. "The op wouldn't have been nearly as screwed if I hadn't been messing up constantly."

"Robin, the Team was ambushed by a powerful force that was waiting for you. There was nothing you could-"

"I failed to establish a mental link to begin with, leaving us stuck with unreliable and interceptable radio communication. I encouraged Aqualad to perform solo recon underwater, allowing him to be separated from the Team and be captured. I left a wounded and a powerless rookie teammate alone, leading to both of them being captured and one of them being possessed by a Lord of Chaos."

"You couldn't control any of that, Robin. You were doing the best that you could."

"I know that. But that doesn't mean I didn't make mistakes. We all made mistakes that night. A LOT of mistakes. To be honest, none of us should be alive right now."

Canary started to say something, but Robin cut her off.

"But none of that stuff was my worst screw-up. Not by far."

"What do you believe was?" Canary asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Robin chuckled. "I shouldn't have jumped into that boom tube to chase Zatanna. It was stupid. Actually, it was more than stupid. It was idiotic. I didn't have backup, equipment or any idea of what I'd be going up against. And I dragged Wally into it too. There is no reason for us to be alive right now other than pure luck."

"Well, I think the hard work of the Justice League and your team, as well as your own skills, played some part as well" Canary said.

"No, no. You see, you say that, but even with everything we had, it was nearly a total party wipe. If Superman had landed even a second later, I would have died." He tapped the band-aid on his cheek from where Chesire's sai had nearly skewered him. "If Vandal Savage wasn't a little bit too talkative, if Tigress had been a good shot, if Psimon had been paying attention: I'd be dead right now. We never would have gotten out of the Q.E.D. chamber without Zatanna's help, so if Rocket hadn't had her crazy idea, and the rest of you hadn't been able to pull it off, we'd be dead. I don't care that everything worked out okay. Zatara nearly got fried and we almost lost Dr. Fate for good. Most of the League was KO'd at one point or another, yourself included. M'gann got freeze-rayed. Conner and Roy almost had their brains melted by Psimon. Wally had to fight two expert assassins while exhausted, unarmed and powerless."

He paused.

"If Batman had made even one mistake against Black Adam: BAM! He'd be dead. He'd be dead because I was an idiot."

"Robin, we won" Canary pointed out. "Because of your actions we saved Artemis and Zatanna, and Zatara was freed from the Helmet of Fate. Mr. Freeze, Black Adam and the Riddler were recaptured and Warden Strange had to go on the run. Savage's organization has been exposed, and he no longer has his portal device. Yesterday was a great victory."

"But I had no right to expect the universe to align just perfectly for that to work" Robin replied. "Almost any other sequence of events would have led to one or more casualties. Deaths of friends and teammates. Just to save me from my own stupidity."

The boy sighed again.

"I'm not supposed to need saving. Yeah, I get in trouble from time to time and the others bail me out, just like I do with them, but we're not supposed to have to launch whole missions to get me out of something that's my own fault."

"Robin, nobody expects you to be able to do everything perfectly all the time. You're only human, after all."

"AND THAT'S THE PROBLEM!" Robin shouted, not realizing how loud he had become.

"Sorry" he said, sheepishly.

"No, Robin" Canary replied. "I think this is an important breakthrough. Why do you think that's a problem?"

"You should know" he said. "I know you have the Canary Cry, but for all intents and purposes you're powerless too. We're squishy, more vulnerable compared to them. It doesn't keep us from getting the job done, obviously, but we have to be more careful. Forget getting shot at, if I _land a jump wrong_ I'll break my ankle and be out for weeks. We don't have the luxury of being stupid. Especially not me. Not on this team. If we're going to stop people like Savage we have to be top form, every time, no exceptions. We can't be perfect, but we can come damn close."

"Robin," Canary said. "I know that you have committed yourself to this fight even more than the rest. I know that you're never happy with your results, always wanting to improve, do it better. You may not be his biological son, but you are VERY much like Batman. A bit cheerier, of course."

"I try" Robin replied, smiling a bit for the first time since he'd entered the room. Then he stopped.

He'd almost pushed it back out of his mind.

_You may not be his biological son._

Mom and Dad, on the trapeze again...

So much had happened since Psimon had pulled those memories out of the little mental vault where they were supposed to be, but they stubbornly refused to go back again.

"What's wrong?" Canary asked, concerned.

Robin shook his head. "Nothing, nothing" he said quickly. Too quickly.

"Robin...?"

"It's fine. I've got it."

"Robin, if you need to talk about-"

"I don't want to talk about it!" he shouted.

"Okay, okay!" Canary said quickly, backing off. She took a second and made a few notes on her clipboard.

"Sorry" Robin said again. "I'm not ready to touch that yet."

"Of course" said Canary. "When you're ready."

"Let's see here..." said Robin. "How else did I totally screw up? Ah, yes. Artemis gets replaced with Tigress, I figure it out and what do I do? Don't. Tell. Anyone. Not a single person. What if I had died, huh? How would you guys have figured it out? How much more damage could she have done? She would have dragged Artemis's name through the mud, and you guys wouldn't even be looking for the real one. Once Psimon was done scraping her brain of intel, what would they have done? Kill her? Make her a slave? Wipe her memories? Or just keep her prisoner forever, waiting to be rescued by friends who now hate her?"

"You don't know for sure that's what would have happened."

"What if I'd told the others when we'd first escaped? I didn't want to suggest such a thing without more evidence, but why not at least Kaldur? He's team leader. He deserves to know things like that."

"You were being cautious" Canary countered.

"I was being stupid. I didn't even tell Wally while we were trapped in Germany. If anyone needed to know, it was him."

"Robin, there are a million different things that we each could have done differently yesterday. But obsessing over the past isn't going to help."

"Tell that to Batman" Robin muttered.

"All of you are off-duty for at least two weeks. Relax. Have some fun. Be a child for five minutes. Please. For me as well as for you. The League has the investigation into Savage's activities well under control."

"Right" said Robin. "Of course. Can I go now?"

Canary thought for a second. Clearly Robin had something else on his mind, but it was not her place to force it out of him.

"Yes, you may" she said. "I need to head up to the Watchtower to help out with the new member orientation, but I'd like to have another session tomorrow, if that's okay with you."

"Sure, sure" Robin said halfheartedly, shuffling out of the room.

Canary watched him go.

_What else happened to you, Robin?_ she thought to herself. _What else aren't you telling us about?_

As a licensed therapist and the Team's official shrink, Canary knew that she couldn't share anything specific she learned from the sessions. But she decided to give Batman a heads-up on this one.

After all, who knew him better than his father?

* * *

_Wow. Who knew that it was so hard to write the Team when they're NOT being beat up, kidnapped or tortured? Good thing I can write the traumatized, which is almost the same thing.  
_

_So... we just passed the three-and-a-half-year anniversary of when I started _Worst Case Scenario_, and we're approaching the one year mark since I ended it. And there's only been one chapter of _Madhouse_. How disappointing. _

_However, I have some good news. First of all, I'd like to say that thanks to a suggestion by the wonderful annhug, _Worst Case Scenario_ has been entered into a fanfiction novel contest on the writing site Inkitt. Fanfiction has become EXTREMELY picky about editing out website names, so if either of these links don't work, try Google. The contest itself (on the off chance you are interested in anything else that was submitted) is at inkittDOTcom/fandom?sort=popular . Now, apparently the key to success on Inkitt is promoting one's work. By which they mean busing in a bunch of your friends from another site. In order to win (or at least get top 10%), I'm going to need your help. Yes, YOU. No, not you, the other one. Yeah. You. Go to inkittDOTcom/stories/33933/chapters/1 and click that little heart thing to upvote WCS enough that people who haven't heard of it can read it. Force your friends and family to do so as well. Anything that mildly legal to gain victory. Even if I don't gain glorious victory over those undeserving other fanfics, it'll help new people find the series, and won't that be fun! I should probably also mention that voting closes at midnight Pacific time on Wednesday October 21st, so you MIGHT want to get on this, since if you don't, I won't update _Madhouse_ again. Ever._

_..._

_Okay, I'm lying about not updating. However, to encourage you longtime WCS fans to do help me out here, I should probably sweeten the deal by mentioning that the Inkitt version of WCS is the **OFFICIAL REMASTERED DE-TYPOED FIXED TIMESTAMPS ALL AROUND MORE AWESOME SECOND DRAFT EDITION **version of _Worst Case Scenario_. So, if you feel the need to remind yourself what happened in the original, that's the place to do it. (I'll get the updates transferred into this site's version at some point, I swear.) And you're going to want to do that, because in order to make up for the ten-ish months since the last update, I, clcman, will now attempt to finish Madhouse IN ONE MONTH!_

_(Before you say anything, Madhouse is significantly shorter than Worst Case Scenario, so no, I'm not trying to do a seventy-chapter fic in that time.) So, can I do it? I HAVE NO IDEA! Probably not, if we're being honest, but hey, at this point you guys will be happy with ANY new chapters, right?_

_That's what I thought. NOW LET'S DOOOOOO THIIIIIIISSSSS!_


	3. Cracks

**DISCLAIMER**: OPERATION OWNING-_YOUNG-JUSTICE_-EVEN-LESS-THAN-NORMAL-FOR-ONE-MONTH begins… NOW!

Chapter 3: Cracks

**Arkham Island**

**December 30, 17:32 EST**

"Report" said L-2 through the holoscreen. He was clearly not in the mood for pleasantries, something that suited Hugo Strange just fine. He _was_ still sitting in the middle of a hostile maximum-security detention facility, after all.

"Tetch has proven significantly more... efficient than I anticipated" Strange said. "He is finishing the final debugging as we speak. Project Parasite is essentially complete."

"Good" replied L-2. "That puts us ahead of schedule. Begin the preparations for Phase 3."

"Already done" Strange replied. "Live testing will begin immediately after the 6 PM shift change. Asset Golem" - he glanced over at the brown-haired man, still staring blankly at a wall - "is under control and ready for the procedure. The only concern is-"

"Yes?" L-2 asked, in a tone suggesting that he was not in the mood for complaints.

"I have several misgivings about our..." Strange searched for the right word "...ally for this mission. Are we certain it is wise to give control over to... _him_?"

"He needs us to get what he wants" L-2 replied. "He will stay in line. For a while. Which is all the time we need. Failing that, there is still the PCD. The transports are ready as soon as the facility is secure. This _will_ work."

"Of course" said Strange, not sounding quite as confident. "Operation Alcatraz Phase 3 will begin shortly." He closed out the holoscreen and discretely wiped his brow. The easy part was done. Tetch had proven cooperative, Project Parasite was nearly functional, Arkham security had no idea they were even there, and Penelope was still following instructions. So what was bothering him?

Was it the fact that he had spent over fifteen hours in the decommissioned sections of a maximum-security psychiatric facility? No, that had been easy. Psimon and Penelope had proven more than adept at keeping security away.

Was it the impending Phase 3, and the great expansion of crimes that he could be convincingly charged with? No, that wasn't the concern. Even if Alcatraz failed, there would be no evidence against him. It would all be taken care of, one way or the other.

The only thing it could be would be... yes, that was it. Their impending deal with the devil. The Light might be convinced that they could control him, but Strange was certain that it would only be a matter of time before they were proven wrong. It was critical that the operation be completed before that happened.

The hard part was just beginning.

* * *

**The Watchtower  
**

**December 30, 18:12 EST**

"Sounds like quite the battle" said Green Lantern Hal Jordan, his face flickering slightly on the screen, a consequence of the thousands of lightyears of space the signal had to travel through. "Sorry I missed it."

"Things were under control" Batman lied. "What have you found?"

Jordan sighed. The Lantern was still on Oa, where he'd been sent after the raid in Spain. As much as his additional firepower would have come in handy at Gemini Base, they'd needed clear answers about the Apokoliptan technology Savage's group had been using. A need that had not gone away.

"As you'll recall," Lantern said, "the Guardians previously claimed that they had never heard of Apokolips, the 'Forever People' or New Genesis, and there is no data about them in the central databases. It was suggested that they might be a known species operating under an alias. I gave the Guardians everything we knew about the situation from Superboy's encounter with them and they promised a full and thorough investigation."

"And?" Batman asked, already fairly certain of what the answer was.

"Nothing."

"They haven't found anything?" asked Wonder Woman.

"No," Jordan shook his head. "They haven't even been looking. My search of the records has turned up exactly zero references to Apokolips, New Genesis, the Forever People or Desaad, the exact same number as before the investigation was promised."

"So they haven't looked into it at all?" asked Superman.

Batman frowned. "Or they already know about it and are keeping it a secret."

"Why would they do that?" Superman asked.

"They're scared" Wonder Woman suggested.

"I don't get it" Jordan said. "What scares the Guardians of the Universe?"

"Apokolips, it seems" said Batman. "Keep searching."

"I'll do my best, Batman" Jordan said. "I'm pulling in some favors as we speak. I'll let you know they instant I have anything."

"Acknowledged" replied Batman, closing the channel.

"What do you think?" Superman asked.

"Clearly the Guardians want to keep this information to themselves" the Dark Knight said. "That does not bode well. From our limited experience, it is clear that these 'Forever People' possess technology vastly superior, not only to our own, but to that of many of the other alien species we've encountered. If they have aspirations on Earth, we won't be able to stop them. Not blind, at any rate."

"Hal's stubborn. He'll get to the bottom of things" Superman said.

Batman nodded, but he didn't seem as certain.

The computer beeped and the Atom's face appeared on the screen.

"Atom" said the Dark Knight. "Have you completed the analysis?"

"Preliminaries are done" the Atom replied. "A full-scale run-up will take several more hours. But I thought you'd like to know right away."

"Know about what?" asked Wonder Woman.

"After the Belle Reve Black Adam vanished, I did a thorough search of his cell" Batman said, glancing over a stack of charts on the screen. "There were no apparent means of escape. No traces of radiation, magic or anything else to suggest a method of teleportation or density shifting."

"A locked room mystery" the Amazon commented.

"In a sense" Batman replied. "The only abnormalities I was able to find were Black Adam's DNA and traces of an unusual liquid on the floor, near the cell's shower."

"Why would the missing prisoner's DNA be unusual?" Wonder Woman asked.

"On it's own, it's not" said Batman. "Humans leave a trail of DNA wherever they go: hair, skin cells, sweat. But I was unable to find any traces of Black Adam's DNA that were less than a few weeks old."

"All security information says that he was there" Superman said. "It couldn't be a hologram. Belle Reve checks for that. Heck, I touched him right before he disappeared."

"So, what's the liquid?" Wonder Woman asked.

"That's the question, now isn't it?" the Atom replied. "It's organic, that's for sure. It appears to be a slurry of proteins suspended in what resembles a primitive cytoplasm. But there's no cells, no organelles, no overall structure. And the proteins are essentially random; no unifying pattern. No DNA. I've never seen anything like this."

"I have" said Batman, narrowing his eyes. "Atom, I'm sending you a file from the Batcomputer. Run a comparison and get back to me once you have the results."

"Roger that" replied Atom, signing off.

"What is it?" Superman asked.

"No point in explaining until we're sure" Batman said.

"You mean until _you're_ sure" Wonder Woman countered.

"There's a difference?" Superman muttered.

"Even if my hunch is correct, it won't help us track down Hugo Strange" Batman replied. "Besides, right now, we have more... pressing matters to attend to."

"You are certainly correct about that" said Martian Manhunter, entering the room. Red Tornado and Captain Atom were right behind him.

"J'onn, what are your thoughts?" Batman asked.

"Her mind is... difficult to read. Portions of it are arranged differently than any other psyche I have encountered."

"Is that a problem?" Batman asked.

"Can you verify her story or not?" Superman asked at the same time.

"My initial telepathic probes suggest that she is genuine" said the Martian. "Much of her mind is in a language I am unfamiliar with, which makes it difficult to be certain."

"Is that a yes or a no?" asked Wonder Woman. "Is she telling the truth?"

"It is certainly possible" replied the Martian. "It may even be probable. But I cannot guarantee it."

"All of the information she has given us checks out" countered Superman.

"Is there any way that could have been faked or stolen?" asked Captain Atom.

"No" said Superman. "No one could possibly have access to it besides myself or Batman. Isn't that right?"

Batman narrowed his eyes. "It's been encrypted in an isolated computer network, and half of it is in a language no one on Earth can read anyways. It is extremely unlikely that anyone could have stolen it."

"Can we get a guarantee on that?" Captain Atom asked. Batman scowled and shook his head.

"Nevertheless, it seems the most probable that this girl is, in fact, who and what she says she is" said Red Tornado. "If that is the case, then our primary issue becomes..."

"What we tell the Team" Batman finished.

They all thought for a second.

"Surely you're not going to just dump her on them" said Wonder Woman. "Certainly not now."

"She's right" said Superman. "This isn't their concern."

"It was increasingly becoming League policy to allow the Team to handle these sorts of matters" said Red Tornado. "Superboy of course being the best example."

"This is different!" Superman snapped.

"How?" Wonder Woman asked. "Oh, don't tell me you're just trying to keep her to yourself!"

"What? No!" the Man of Steel replied, taken aback. "I just meant that Superboy will likely not take this very well."

"So NOW you're concerned about Superboy" the Amazon said sarcastically. "Usually you're trying to pretend he doesn't exist!"

"If we could please stay on topic" interrupted Captain Atom, moving between the two League founders. "I'm not Black Canary, but if she was here, I feel confident that she would point out that the Team is to be completely off duty for the next two weeks. Babysitting our new-found Kryptonian might be considered 'work,' especially given that she was found as a result of the Cape Chidley op."

"Perhaps introducing the girl to the Team in a more relaxed, non-mission environment would help her acclimate more effectively, as well as provide the Team with a non-violent distraction" proposed Martian Manhunter.

"Yes, or re-traumatize them while giving a spy access to the Hall of Justice" replied Wonder Woman.

"She's not a spy" huffed Superman. "She's just another victim of Vandal Savage and his buddies."

"Unless that is what Savage wants us to think" Red Tornado suggested. "As Tigress demonstrated, his operatives can come in all shapes and sizes."

"It might be worth asking ourselves what the consequences will be if we keep this to ourselves and the Team finds out" Captain Atom said. "Generally speaking, they haven't taken well to us keeping secrets from them."

"Additionally, if I may ask," said Martian Manhunter, "what would be our course of action in the event that we did not inform the Team? She must go somewhere. If not the Team, then where?"

"STAR Labs is an option" Superman said.

"If you want to introduce her to Earth's finest clinical study" Wonder Woman remarked.

"There's the Canadian government, if we're willing to risk having her outside of our hands" Captain Atom suggested.

"I also know a family that can be trusted to keep secrets and has experience helping Kryptonians adjust to life on Earth" Superman said.

"_Your parents_?" Wonder Woman asked in disbelief. "You're willing to send a superpowered total stranger to live with your parents just because she can speak a little Kryptonian?"

"I was just suggesting a possibility..." Superman growled, clearly agitated.

"This is all just a dream come true for you, isn't it, Clark?" the Amazon spat. "Another survivor of Krypton, and a close relative of yours to boot. How convenient. Don't you remember how the last Krypton survivor your found tried to turn the planet into..."

"ENOUGH!" grunted Batman. The others turned to look at him. He had been quiet for an awfully long time.

"This is not for us to decide" the Dark Knight said, pushing some buttons. A holoscreen appeared.

"Batman to Hall" he said.

"What do you think you're do-" Superman started, but Wonder Woman placed a hand on his shoulder.

"What is it, Batman?" came a voice from the other end of the call.

"Aqualad, I need you to meet me at the Metropolis zeta tube in ten minutes. Is that acceptable?"

"Yes, Batman" the Atlantean replied. "I will be there shortly."

"Good" said the Dark Knight. "Batman out." He closed the holoscreen and turned to the other League members.

"Aqualad is the leader of the Team. He deserves the chance to give his opinion. Superman, you and I will speak with him and introduce him to the girl. If he believes the Team is ready to deal with her, then that is what we will do. Am I clear?"

The remaining five Leaguers looked at each other, but said nothing.

* * *

Robin shuffled back to the Hall of Justice's library, practicing his slouching technique.

He knew that he needed to stop beating himself up over everything, but he couldn't. Bruce had taught him to always analyze and learn from every fight, every patrol, every mission. Every mistake was a chance to learn, he'd said. A chance to improve. A chance to never make it again.

Robin's mopeyness was rudely (though somewhat relievingly) interrupted by one Wallace West sliding across the floor and bumping into his feet.

"Hey, Rob" the speedster said sheepishly.

"Dare I ask?" Robin replied.

"He keeps trying to wrestle Wolf" said Conner, smirking slightly. "Hasn't quite learned his lesson yet."

Wolf trotted over, a frisbee in its mouth. "Hey, boy" said Robin, smiling as he rubbed the canine's ears, took the disc out of its mouth and gently tossed it across the room. Wolf dashed over and snatched the frisbee out of the air.

"Show-off" Wally muttered, getting back to his feet. Robin smiled, if only for a second.

"Robin, is everything alright?" asked Kaldur. "You seem... ill at ease."

Robin froze for half a second. Kaldur had always been the most perceptive of the Team, at least when it came to things like this.

"Uh... yeah," Robin lied with the best smile he could manage. "Just a little tired."

"You sure?" asked Red Arrow. "You were in there a long time." Artemis, who was standing nearby, elbowed him.

"Shrink time. Confidential. Remember?" she hissed.

Roy frowned. "Sorry. I didn't mean to pry." His tone unconsciously suggested otherwise.

Kaldur glanced at the archer with concern. Roy had never been especially cuddly, but over the past few days, his personality had grown even more abrasive. Despite his best efforts, the Atlantean's mind began to wonder about Roy's own session...

The library's primary monitor flickered on.

"Batman to Hall" said, well, Batman.

"What is it, Batman?" Kaldur asked, half glad for a distraction and half afraid of what disaster would force Batman to call them.

"Aqualad," said the Dark Knight "I need you to meet me at the Metropolis zeta tube in ten minutes. Is that acceptable?"

Kaldur frowned. Just him?

"Yes, Batman" the Atlantean replied. Whatever it was, it had to be important. "I will be there shortly."

"Good. Batman out."

The screen turned off.

"What do you think that's all about?" Wally asked no one in particular.

"Obviously it's important Team leader stuff" said Artemis, tossing the frisbee to Wolf. "Why else would he want just Kaldur?"

Kaldur flinched slightly as he pictured Black Manta. Though he had informed Batman and Aquaman about his apparent parentage, he had not yet told the rest of the Team.

"Hmph" grunted Roy, obviously displeased but unsure as to why. "You think he's found a way around Black Canary's sidelining orders already?"

"I do not believe Batman would attempt to send us on a mission so soon after the last" Kaldur said. "And if he did, it would likely be a dire situation indeed."

The Atlantean turned to the zeta tube, typed in the address and prepared to leave.

"Have fun!" M'gann said cheerfully before realizing that no one in history had ever described a private briefing with Batman as 'fun.' Conner grunted a similar sentiment as he continued to flip through channels on the television.

"Do try not to kill each other while I am gone" Kaldur said as Wally lunged at Wolf again, trying to grab the frisbee.

"No promises" the speedster muttered, the disc having somehow ended up in his mouth. Kaldur smiled and entered the tube.

"Recognize Aqualad B02_._"

"You don't really think we're getting a mission, do you?" M'gann asked, floating over to the sofa and sitting next to Conner. "I mean, Batman _promised_ Black Canary."

"It's probably just a briefing" suggested Robin. "Kaldur's the leader. That means he gets told stuff before the rest of us. You know, leader things."

"Things like moles?" said Roy. "He kept Sportsmaster's mole comments a secret from you all for several weeks, didn't he?"

Everyone else groaned.

"Mole stuff?" Conner asked, briefly pausing his channel-flipping. "Again? Really?"

"What?" asked Roy. "It's a serious issue!"

"Haven't we kind of put the whole 'mole' thing behind us?" asked Wally. "You know, with the... everything?"

"What, just because we got infiltrated by Tigress we're going to let our guard down?"

"Not being paranoid isn't the same thing as letting your guard down" said Artemis.

"And taking precautions is not the same as being paranoid" Roy counted. "Two days ago we got crushed. Utterly. Yeah we pulled through, but that was by the skin of our teeth with the _entire Justice League_ up to bat for us. Do you really think Savage could have done that without an inside source? Do you really think he just happened to _guess_ the right way to take us apart?"

"I-I thought we agreed that Tigress was the mole" said M'gann, sounding nervous. Even she didn't really believe that.

Robin shook his head. "Tigress didn't replace Artemis until after the Bioship had already been taken down. They'd set up for us way ahead of that."

"Cape Chidley was a trap" Roy said. "To set that trap, Savage had to know about the Team. He had to know who was on the Team. And he had to know that the Team would be reconing the Chidley Cadmus base that night."

"There was Rocket" said Artemis. "Didn't Psimon screw up her mind pretty bad? Not that I'm blaming her, of course, but she did nanite Zatanna and poison Wally's snack bar things, right?"

"That's what Psimon said" said Robin. "If you feel inclined to believe him, of course."

"I'd almost forgotten that in addition to everything else, Savage has the defilement of my poor, innocent snack bars to answer for" said Wally, who had finally stopped fighting Wolf. He thought for a second. "Man, you _know_ you've had a bad day when you forget that you got Joker venom'd because too much other stuff happened."

"So... the mole was Rocket under the mental control of Psimon, which she is now free of and will be protected from with more advanced psychic defenses courtesy of my uncle, problem solved case closed?" M'gann said really, really fast. Conner's head jerked in her direction as he realized that no one else in the room was aware of Queen Bee's blackmailing of the Martian. Despite M'gann's increasingly nervous demeanor, the others didn't seem to have noticed. Perhaps they thought she was simply upset at the prospect of another mole.

Roy shook his head. "Rocket joined two days before the mission began and didn't know anything about the operation before the briefing. She might have been a tool to set the trap, but she's not how they got the intel. How would Savage have even known to have Psimon go after Rocket, anyways? Or that she'd be in the Mt. Justice area? Psychics can't mind control someone from the other side of the planet."

"This isn't the first time Mt. Justice has been hit" Robin pointed out. "There was T. O. Morrow and his robo-goons."

"You really think Morrow was working with Savage?" Conner asked.

"Why not?" asked Wally. "Everyone else we've ever fought seems to be! The Brain, Klarion, Sportsmaster, Count Vertigo, the Injustice League, the frickin' ice villains..."

The room was silent for a moment as they all appreciated the apparent existence of the Supervillain's Union International, and all of its horrifying implications.

"Working with Morrow wouldn't have gotten him up-to-date information" Roy said. "Savage had to know that we would be coming after Cape Chidley."

"Or he could have leaked the information with the intent of luring us there" Robin suggested. "Maybe the whole thing was a set-up from start to finish."

"Why?" M'gann asked. "Why would they go to so much trouble?"

"We were the target" Conner said. "The Team, I mean. Not the League, not superheroes in general, _US_. They wanted _us_ off the table. They used their first Q.E.D. portal to bring over evil Artemis just to screw with us."

"What'd we ever do to them?" Artemis asked sarcastically.

"If the Injustice League, the Reds, the Brain, Parasite and half of the other people we've fought were connected to Savage, then we've done a fair amount of interfering in their schemes" Wally said, serious for once. "Not to mention New Orleans."

"Would you give that a rest, West?" Artemis growled. "I screwed up there. I figured that out."

"Actually, he makes a good point" Roy said. "If your description was accurate, those things Klarion, Ivo and the Brain created and put in that briefcase were just about the only thing in their arsenal we _didn't_ get pointed at us. Any guesses as to why?"

"They need it for something else" Conner said. It was the most logical explanation.

"Vandal Savage may be a sore loser," said Robin "but he wouldn't put together an organization like this just to kill us. He's got a much bigger scheme in the works. He always does."

"But we beat him!" M'gann exclaimed. "We destroyed his portal device and kept him from using Tala's magic!"

"That was definitely a large and very expensive spanner in his works" Robin said. "But that doesn't mean he's done. Not by a long shot."

"Magic and technology together, under the watchful robot eyes of the Brain... whatever those things do, it can't be good" Wally said. "If only we had some sort of lead..."

"None of this solves the original problem" Roy said. "_How_ did Savage get the intel he needed to compromise the Team in the first place? There's really only one possibility."

The room was silent as the others all looked at each other. Finally, Artemis said it:

"Are you saying that even after all of the kidnapping, mind control, torture, doppelgangers, freezing, poisoning, demonic possession, beatings and all the other nearly-lethal crap we went through, you STILL think one of us is a traitor!?"

Roy frowned. "What I'm saying is I think Savage has an additional source of information inside either the Team or the League. Maybe not a traitor _per se_. It could be control of our computer and communications systems. It could be some kind of magic thingy. We've seen his love of psychics; maybe the true mole isn't even aware of it. But that doesn't mean we can't figure this out and put a stop to it. And if I'm the only one willing to do that, then so be it."

"Roy, we can't work as a team if we're constantly second-guessing each other" Robin said. "At the end of the day, there has to be a bit of faith. That's how a team stays together."

"If you say so" Roy grumbled. "I guess I still can't believe that Tigress fooled me. I never even suspected she could be a fake."

"Dude," said Wally "you become a full-on Justice League member in like eighteen hours. Chill. Out. Take at least a _little_ break from the paranoia, will ya?"

"I guess you're right" Roy said, turning and walking away.

"She fooled you because she told you what you wanted to believe" Artemis said quietly.

"What was that?" Roy asked, whirling around.

"Tigress fooled you because you WANTED to believe I was the mole" Artemis repeated. "It made you feel clever, didn't it? All your suspicions were right. 'Artemis Crock is a traitor and a supervillain.' It just made perfect sense. You couldn't figure out she was a fake because you didn't try!"

"Artemis..." Wally said, putting his hand on hers. "Tigress is a nasty piece of work, but she was also a good actor. Even Robin barely saw through her, and he's an expert!"

"No" said Roy, facing the door again. "She has a point. If Tigress had been a replacement Robin, or Aqualad or Zatanna, I would have seen right through her. It was Artemis's background, her secret-keeping, her suspicious behavior that made the lie believable."

Artemis stood up.

"Are you saying that it's somehow _my_ fault that I got kidnapped, mind-screwed, and replaced with an evil me from another dimension?" she growled.

"I don't know" Roy replied, his voice disturbingly calm. "Is there anyone else here with a background that would allow them to have an evil twin from another dimension similar enough to pull off a convincing switch? Is there anyone else here who told obvious lies about their background, justified or not? Is there anyone else here who deliberately sabotaged an operation to keep their personal secrets safe?"

M'gann managed to resist raising her hand. She did NOT need the full force of Red Arrow brand paranoia pointed at her right now.

"I-" Artemis stuttered briefly. "I-"

"Whoa, dude, calm down!" Wally shouted, sounding decidedly un-calm. "I think we can all agree that if ANYONE here isn't Savage's mole, assuming there even is one, it's Artemis. He spent his entire operation doing everything in his power to make sure we didn't trust her, and now you're doing exactly what he wanted!"

"Are you saying I shouldn't be a least a little suspicious of the child of _criminals_?" Roy spat. "Her entire family's crooked sideways. Her father and sister have both tried to kill all of us more than once, and seemed perfectly happy hanging out with Tigress. Her mom only went straight because she broke her spine. Can't do crime work from a wheelchair, now can you? Pathetic."

Artemis roared and lunged at him, but Robin appeared and grabbed her from behind, holding her back.

"You don't know anything about her!" Artemis shrieked, struggling against Robin's grip. The Boy Wonder might be small, but he knew exactly how to use his muscles.

"It was just a lucky fall" said Roy, ignoring her. "That's what Savage said, right? The only difference between you and Tigress is how your mother landed when she fell off a rooftop! If she hadn't fallen, would she have ever stopped!?"

"So now you're believing _Vandal Savage_?" Wally asked. "Roy, this isn't like you!"

"Wally, if there's _anything_ you should know about me, it's that I don't trust very much. Faith may keep a team together, but suspicion keeps it alive. If that costs me a few friends, well, we're here to do a job, not be buddies."

"I'm failing to see how THIS is helping you find your supposed mole" Robin said.

"You're right" said Roy. "I'm wasting time."

He stepped through the doorway into the depths of the Hall of Justice.

"SCREW YOU!" Artemis shouted after him as the door closed. "You self-righteous, sanctimonious hypocrite! She's twice the hero you'll ever be!"

Artemis took a few deep breaths, enough to convince Robin to release her.

"Calmer now?" he asked, knowing better than to ask her if she was okay. Artemis nodded.

"I swear to God, I am going to punch him so hard for that" she said.

"Artemis," Wally began, "I know Roy's... prickly, and clearly he crossed a line just now, but he-"

"I don't want to hear it" Artemis said, her voice cold and angry. She walked over to the zeta tube.

"I'm going home now" she said. "See you guys tomorrow."

She punched in the coordinates and allowed the tube's scanner to scan her.

There was a beep, but nothing happened.

Artemis stared at the zeta panel for a few seconds before groaning and punching in an additional code. The extra passcode they'd added onto her zeta access to try and keep Tigress out. Because that was the _other_ person on the planet she needed to be reminded of right now.

"Recognize Artemis B07. Confirmed."

Artemis clenched her fist tight enough to hurt her skin, hoping, just hoping that none of the others would notice her tears before she teleported out.

She disappeared in a flash of light.

The four remaining teenagers (plus Wolf) just stared at the now-empty zeta tube.

"Well, Canary's going to be pissed" Robin said.

The others nodded.

* * *

_So... this write-the-story-in-one-month thing may be a LITTLE harder than I thought...  
_

_Seriously, though. Immediately after declaring my one-month goal, I ran into an incredibly busy couple of weeks, and then one thing led to another and another and... yeah. Seven freakin' months of no progress. (Though I did totally redux and update/de-typo the original WCS, so if you want to take a refresher course on my fancy new SECOND DRAFT, feel free. If you don't, you really haven't missed anything.)_

_To make matters worse, I gravely underestimated how much set-up Madhouse actually requires. While I love the format of one chapter at a time in how it gets me feedback fast and usually motivates me to keep working, it also means that I basically have to get things right on the first try. (Yes, I can edit chapters after posting__, but I don't want you guys having to re-read stuff because I retconned it.) That means that in a set-up chapter like this, I have to carefully make sure that I have absolutely EVERY scene, comment and observation that needs to be there. It makes sense, I suppose. Having knocked over all of the dominoes of canon, I must carefully put them back up into the new status quo before I can properly smash them with my semi-metaphorical clown-makeuped sledgehammer._

_That said, I'm up for another go at the legendary One-Month Challenge. (Once again, two months is more likely, but we'll see.) This time around, though, I've come prepared. I know I've said that before, but just trust me this one time, okay? I just gave you a 5,000 word chapter. If that doesn't demonstrate commitment, what will? (The next chapter is also 80% complete at the time of this writing, so there's that as well.)_

_Let the madness begin!_

_(On an unrelated note, I really like these "The League/Team argues among itself" scenes, as much of a pain as they are to write. As much fun as epic fights against supervillains is, it's also cool to see the different personalities and philosophies of our various good guys conflict as well. Also, the "other survivor of Krypton" __Wonder Woman mentioned is General Zod.)_


	4. A Night Out

**DISCLAIMER**: Why is it called a "disclaimer"? Shouldn't my saying that I don't own _Young Justice_ (i.e. the lack of a claim) be a "nonclaimer"?

Chapter 4: A Night Out...

**New York City**

**December 30, 19:23 EDT**

Zatanna Zatara hadn't realized how long it had been since she'd last had ice cream. She'd loved it as a kid (as did all children), but recently, she just hadn't felt the urge for some reason.

Now that she thought about it, the answer was obvious. She hadn't had any since the world-splitting incident.

She'd always gotten ice cream with him as a kid.

It had just reminded her too much of what she'd lost.

"Zatanna?" came a voice beside her. "Your ice cream is melting."

"Right, Dad" Zatanna said quickly. "_Esrever tlem_" she said, waving a hand over her treat.

"You know, Zatanna" said her father, who had long ago finished his own ice cream. "This is where I proposed to your mother. She used to say that this city at night was as beautiful as all of the jewels in the world."

Zatanna looked down from their perch, sitting on the roof of a skyscraper high above the city. Far below, looking not so much like ants as tiny colored dots, thousands of people lined the streets of New York, half still celebrating a supervillain-free Christmas, half preparing for a hopefully-supervillain-free New Year's Eve.

Zatanna thought about those people. Just normal human beings doing normal human things. Not casting spells, not bending spacetime, not communing with the dead. They didn't have to worry about nanites in the blood cutting off their oxygen or extradimensional beings possessing their bodies and trying to kill their friends.

There was something to be said for being normal.

She looked over at her father. It hadn't even been two full months that he had been Dr. Fate, but it had felt like an eternity.

She still hated him. Nabu. For all of his claims of righteousness, she knew he didn't care about humanity as more than a means to an end. They were tools for the promotion of Order, pawns in a cosmic grudge match that had gone on since the beginning of the universe. A grudge match that had been awfully focused on her body recently.

Of course, Tala and Klarion weren't on her list of favorite sapient entities either. Though most of the Team seemed to have ignored it, Tala had done just as much damage as Tigress. More, actually. And Zatanna wasn't a hundred percent sure how well she really had her under control. As for Klarion, well, he was the reason she'd had to use the Helmet of Fate to heal the worlds in the first place, which, when combined with every other thing he had ever done meant that getting pounded by the Justice League, having his connection to his familiar forcefully severed and being banished to another plane via Nth metal mace to the Lord-of-Chaos-face-equivalent was _still_ him getting off easy.

And then there was Tynan. The "Lord of Balance." Though they had yet to look deeply, Batman and Zatara (who seemed happy to be working together once again, even if neither really wanted to show it) had only barely been able to find mention of such entities in the known magic lore. If they did really exist the way Tynan said they did, they had been keeping a lower profile than their Order or Chaos equivalents.

Tynan had given her the power to subdue Tala and Nabu and seemed to be trusted by Kent Nelson, but there was something about his words that had worried her. "_All we ask in return is that you ensure that your world continue as your kind sees fit." _That_ sounded _straightforward, but one of the first things any good magic teacher emphasizes is that magical entities love trick wording. As the old magician saying went, 'A fool and his soul are soon parted.'

_Well, I guess I'm the fool then,_ Zatanna thought. _But I got control of my body back, saved my friends, saved my dad and set Klarion on fire, so so far, so good_.

Zatanna was about to take another lick of her ice cream cone when her hand twitched. For a second, nothing happened. Then, a tremor rippled through her muscles. The cone slipped from her hand and plunged towards the ground far below as Zatanna fell backwards, away from the edge.

"Zatanna!" Zatara cried, grabbing her. Zatanna twitched again as golden electricity sparked through her limbs, knocking her father back. She collapsed in a semiconscious heap, twitching and sparking.

After a few more excruciating seconds, it was over.

Zatanna slowly got to her knees, only to notice that she was on fire. A second or two of desperate scrambling revealed that it was not so much her that was burning as the concrete beneath her, which glowed with unnaturally red flames.

Chaos magic.

Acting on instinct, Zatanna slowly waved her hand. The flames vanished.

Zatara got to his feet and ran over to her.

"Are you alright?" he demanded, snatching her in a deep embrace.

Zatanna started to reply, but stopped, wiping back tears.

"I-I don't know" she said. "I don't know, Dad."

Her earlier thought came back to her: _So far, so good_.

There was _definitely_ something to be said for being normal.

* * *

"He did WHAT!?" Black Canary shouted, narrowly avoiding the release of a full-on Canary Cry.

"H-he's just stressed" M'gann replied nervously.

"He seriously insulted her mom?" Raquel asked, dumbfounded. "He insulted her paraplegic mom?"

"Look, no one here is accusing Roy of thinking before speaking" Robin said.

"Clearly not" said Icon, somewhat uncomfortable. He had merely stopped by the Hall of Justice to deliver Rocket to the Team and meet Black Canary before the impending Justice League New Member Orientation meeting that night. He had _not_ been expecting to be encountering the aftermath of a family feud. Wolf growled, seemingly sharing the sentiment.

"I mean, it wasn't THAT bad" Wally said, trying to defend his friend. He frowned and thought about it for a second. "Well, okay, it was pretty bad."

"No kidding" said Conner, who had resumed flipping through channels without actually watching anything. "I mean, Kaldur tells us to not kill each other and five minutes later, bam."

Black Canary put her hand on her forehead. _Of course_ this would happen without Kaldur, herself or any adult around. "Do you know where Artemis went?" Canary asked.

"She said she was going home" M'gann said. "I don't think she wants to be disturbed."

Canary sighed. "I'll send her mother a message explaining what happened." This couldn't have happened at a worst time short of an impending world-ending catastrophe. As it was, she had too much to deal with preparing for New Member Orientation, processing and analyzing her notes from the rest of the Team's therapy sessions and, of course, keeping an eye on Batman to make sure that the Team actually stayed off duty. A task he seemed to be trying to make as difficult as possible, if his summoning of Aqualad meant what she thought it did.

"She's not a kid, you know" Robin said. "You don't need to call her mom every time something goes wrong."

"Dude, I'm not sure if you're the one to talk about age" Wally whispered to the 13-year-old.

Canary frowned. "Artemis is sixteen years old and a legal minor" she said. "Moreover, as the League's official therapist, I have the power to take all reasonable steps to ensure the psychological health and well-being of any member of either the League or the Team."

"You're doing a great job on Batman" Conner muttered. Canary glared at him.

"I believe this conversation is finished for the moment" Icon said, attempting to change the subject. "Raquel, if you are all set, I will be off." His discussion with Canary could wait for better circumstances.

"Good luck at orientation!" Rocket replied, giving him a small punch on the arm. "I know you'll do great!"

"I should point out that New Member Orientation isn't a test," Canary said. "It's our way of making sure our new inductees know everything they need to know to start working on Day 1. The public expects our new members to be in the news as soon as possible. And you never know what sort of 'welcome party' schemes the supervillains will be up to in a normal year, let alone this one."

"The induction ceremony is tomorrow morning, right?" Rocket asked.

Icon nodded. "Ten A.M. sharp outside this very building."

"Hey, what are we going to do now that Dr. Fate is... unavailable?" Wally asked. "It's not like you can just drop him at the last minute. Or induct him in Zatanna's body. Right?"

"Martian Manhunter will appear on stage as Dr. Fate" Canary said. "No reason to try and explain everything that happened involving him."

"And if they ask why Martian Manhunter is absent?" Conner asked.

"They won't" said M'gann, standing up and shimmering, her skin rippling as her flesh restructured itself. In a few seconds, she was a perfect copy of her uncle.

"I believe this will suffice" she said, her voice identical to that of Martian Manhunter's.

"That's creepy" said Raquel as the Martian shifted back to her traditional form. "Awesome, but also creepy." Wally nodded his head in agreement.

"If that is all settled," Icon said, "then I will be on my way."

"As much as I would love to join you, I need to go find Red Arrow and straighten this out" Canary said. She cracked her knuckles. "He has some explaining to do."

As she disappeared into the depths of the Hall and Icon left via zeta tube, the rest of the Team scattered, each trying to do something that didn't involve reminding themselves of anything that had just happened.

Robin had been staring at the same spot on the floor for two minutes when made his decision, stood up and walked over to the zeta tube.

"Where are you going?" Wally asked.

"I'm going to the Batcave. I've been thinking about Savage and his gang and there's a lead or two that I want to check up on."

"Isn't that work, the thing Black Canary specifically told us not to do?" Raquel asked.

"I'm just going to be reading some stuff on a computer," Robin replied. "That's what normal kids do, right?"

By the time they had a chance to respond, he had already teleported away.

* * *

**Gotham City**

**December 30, 21:24 EDT**

Artemis closed her apartment door with a slam.

"Artemis?" her mother asked, wheeling herself into the room. There was a shotgun in her lap. Artemis sighed.

"My 9th grade English teacher was Mrs. Hatch, and I got a B in the class" she said. Batman had not yet developed a permanent solution short of tattoos to ensure that Artemis and Tigress could be distinguished, so for the moment, codes and little-known personal information would have to do.

Paula Crock relaxed, putting the gun down. Artemis's fist clenched slightly for a second before relaxing. The ability of her own mother to trust her on sight was just another thing Tigress had taken from her. That Vandal Savage had taken from her.

"Artemis, dear," asked Paula, "is everything alright?"

Artemis looked at her mother. She looked at the adventurous young woman who had fallen in love with the man she had thought of as a daring rogue. She looked at the wife who had stayed with him to try and protect her two young daughters. She looked at the criminal who had paid for her crimes with nine years in jail and a broken spine. She looked at the mother whose lucky fall had, apparently, saved her younger daughter from a life of crime. And she looked at the brave woman who had mended her ways to become the best parent she was able to be. The brave woman whose integrity that _idiot_ Red Arrow had just finished besmirching in his obnoxious, holier-than-thou manner.

"Everything's fine" Artemis lied. She started to head towards her room. "I'm going to bed."

She had just reached the door when her mother spoke.

"She isn't you, Artemis."

Artemis whirled around.

"What do you mean?"

"This… Tigress" Paula said. "Though I do not fully understand everything Batman told me about your experiences and your encounter with her, I know enough to know that however similar you two may seem, you are not the same person." She wheeled herself closer and put her hand on Artemis's. "And I know you may not believe this right now, but I do: Even if I had not survived that night, all those years ago… I believe that you still would have made the right decision. That you would still be the righteous young woman you are today. That you would still be someone I could be proud to call my daughter."

"But what about Jade?" Artemis asked.

"Jade has made her decision" Paula said, turning away and wheeling herself towards the kitchen. "Just as you have made yours. I can't say I agree with her, having made the same mistake myself, but she is an adult. She can make her own choices and accept the consequences."

"She chose Tigress over me" Artemis said. "She helped her ruin my life. She almost killed two of my friends. She left me to be killed or brainwashed so she could hang out with my replacement."

Paula stopped, briefly. For a second, had she been facing Artemis, the archer would have seen the tears in her eyes.

"She has made her decision" Paula said again. "She can and will accept the consequences."

The two were silent as Paula reached the door. She was about to go through when she stopped and turned again.

"Remember, Artemis," she said. "No matter how much nonsense you hear about time travel or fate or destiny, there is really only one truth." She paused for a second. "You control the things you can and accept the ones you can't. That is the way of the world At the end of the day, though, your true measure as a person comes down to your choices. And, as your mother, I trust that you will make the right ones."

Artemis stared at her mother for several seconds before entering her room and locking the door.

Paula closed her eyes and sighed. _Jade,_ she thought. _Where did I go wrong?_

Then she turned around and entered the kitchen.

* * *

_Artemis sighed loudly as she sunk back into her chair._

_"This is going to take a while, isn't it?"_

_"Probably" Black Canary replied. Artemis sighed again. Nothing like good old fashioned Black Canary therapy sessions._

_"I suppose 'I was unconscious the whole time so I don't need any therapy' isn't going to cut it this time?" She cracked a small, nervous smile._

_"You know that you don't have to talk about anything you don't want to" said Canary. She paused for a second. "But yes, I think it would be for the best if we went into a little more detail."_

_Artemis smiled some more. It was weird. Somehow, after all of the hell Savage had put them through, talking to Black Canary didn't feel so bad._

_Artemis rubbed her leg absentmindedly._

_"How's your ankle?" Canary asked. Artemis stopped and thought._

_"It's great, actually. Zatanna does good work. It's funny, really. Vandal Savage snaps my ankle and it ends up the only part of me that's NOT sore."_

_They both chuckled a bit. Black Canary had a fair share of bruises from the incident as well._

_"Okay," said Artemis, her tone getting serious "let's get down to it: Three days ago, I was kidnapped and replaced by an alternate timeline version of myself who ran around throwing out my family secrets and trying to kill my friends while I'm busy having a psychic dig through my head with a spoon." She paused. "And it's your job to ask me how I feel about it."_

_"And how DO you feel about it?" Canary asked._

_"Well, it's certainly not how I was expecting that day to go."_

_Canary leaned forwards. "Artemis, you've been through an enormously traumatizing experience. All I want is to help you get through it."_

_There was silence for several seconds._

_"You wanna know the weird thing?" Artemis asked. "What am I saying, of course you do. The weird thing is, I was SO desperate to keep my family a secret, so desperate to keep the rest of the Team from finding out…" _…so desperate to keep Wally from finding out…_ "…and now that they know… nothing. Poof. No big deal. So, in some ways I'm kind of relieved that it's all out in the open." She smiled just a bit. "I don't have to hide anymore."_

_"That's good" said Canary, taking a note on her clipboard._

_"Of course, I'm still going to smash Tigress's pretty little face in the next time I see her. Jade too."_

_"Cheshire?" Canary asked._

_"Yeah. My dad being involved in something like this? Typical. I'm really not surprised, and I stopped caring about him a long time ago. But Jade? I know she's not a good person, and I know I have no real reason to expect anything from her, but still… she's my sister, and she takes part in this scheme to ruin my life? While I'm getting my brain ripped out, she's dancing around with a fake me trying to kill my friends?"_

_"You feel betrayed" Canary suggested._

_"Of course I feel betrayed!" Artemis shouted. She started to say something, thought better of it and slouched back into her chair._

_Canary frowned. The old 'too tough to need help' Artemis of previous sessions was gone, shattered by her recent experiences. That wasn't necessarily a good thing._

_"Artemis…" Canary began._

_"I want to hate them" Artemis said, looking down at the ground. "Tigress and Jade. I want to hate them. They deserve it, don't they?"_

_"I can't really answer that" replied Canary._

_"I want to hate them… but I can't. Whatever else she's done, Jade's still my sister. She's still my family."_

_"Artemis, it's very natural that you would feel conflicted. Loving family members is a core part of being human. It's not something you can control, even if you want to." _

_"Whatever" said Artemis, shrugging. "As for Tigress, you'd think it would be easy to hate your evil twin that stole your life. But…" Artemis trailed off._

_"But…?" Canary asked._

_"She had the chance to shoot me. I was down, it was point blank, there was nothing I could do. But she didn't. She hesitated. I'm not sure why, and I'm not sure she knows why either. But she did."_

_"I can't know for sure," said Canary, "but it would seem logical that there would be an instinctive hesitation to shooting your identical twin."_

_"If anything Vandal Savage says can be believed," Artemis continued, staring straight at the ground, "her life wasn't all that different from mine. She just didn't have my mom to help keep her on the right path. I want to say that I'm confident that I'm a better person than her... but I can't. I can't say for sure that, if I'd been in her place, I wouldn't have turned out the exact same way. And that idea? That idea that everything you stand for, all of your ideals and desires and motivations, are the result of a lucky fall fourteen years ago? That's terrifying."_

_"Artemis..." Canary hesitated, uncertain as to what to say. She decided to be honest. "I wish I could reassure you, that I could tell you for certain that that wouldn't be the case, but I can't. I don't know a lot about time travel or variant universes or interdimensional travel. I don't know if your mother dying would have caused you to turn out differently. But what I do know is that none of this changes who you are now or what you believe is right. Might you and Tigress have ended up the same? Yes. Did you? No. You are not her, Artemis, and you will never be."_

_"So everyone keeps saying" Artemis muttered under her breath._

_"The point is, as much as I want to, I can't seem to properly hate Cheshire or Tigress. __And if you can't hate the person who tried to steal your identity, kill your friends and ruin your life, then who can you hate?"_

_Canary thought for a second. "I don't know. But I do know that hate won't solve anything. It won't stop Savage's plans, or make him pay for everything he's done. And it won't make you feel better."_

_Artemis tucked her legs up to her chin. For a second, she wasn't a super-tough bow-wielding vigilante. For a brief second, she was a nine-year-old girl holding a teddy bear as she watched her big sister walk out the door for the last time._

_"I know."_

* * *

Artemis stretched her bowstring, feeling the tension in the wire. She felt the slight calm that always overtook her whenever she was about to fire. It hadn't always been like this. Bows used to make her nervous, like all of the weapons Dad had showed her how to use. Well, except for the nunchucks. Those had been pretty fun to swing around, at least until she hit herself in her cute little seven-year-old face and broke her nose.

But the thing about bows was that you couldn't fire them nervous, at least not with any accuracy. With a bit of focus, you could make a gun shoot where you wanted pretty easily, but a bow was a part of your body. Everything you felt, it felt. If you were shaking, if you were tense, if you were breathing just a little, you would miss.

In order to work the bow with the level of precision Sportsmaster demanded and her current job required, each shot required complete calm. No matter what emotions were spinning around – fear, anger, despair – they all had to go until the arrow was away. That was the secret. That was how she had been able to hit Wally's EMP device with Red Inferno shooting fire at her and the knowledge that she and all of her friends were going to die if she missed.

It had taken years of practice to reach that level of calm. Now, no matter how frustrated or panicked or depressed she was, all Artemis needed was the pull of a bowstring, and for a split second, all of that emotion would fade away.

Bows were so simple, compared to life. Just pull the string and release.

Artemis put her bow down and checked her quiver. She thought back to the good old days of amateur solo vigilantism when she'd just had a bunch of pointed arrows and a few crude homemade blunt ones. Now that she'd gone corporate, Green Arrow had lovingly showered his 'niece' (well, they didn't need that cover story anymore, now did they?) with all of the utterly insane arrow-based gadgets he'd managed to come up with. Strangely enough, half of them were actually useful.

Deciding she had enough ammunition for the night, Artemis slung her quiver and bow over her shoulder, pulled her mask over her face and quickly checked her costume in the mirror. She still hadn't forgotten her third night out, when she'd put her shirt on backwards and not noticed until she'd gotten home.

Satisfied that everything was in place and that she'd waited long enough that her mom might actually believe she was asleep, Artemis walked over to her window, opened it and stepped out onto the fire escape, ready to work off her anger on Gotham City's famed native thug population.

"Going somewhere?" came a voice above her.

Artemis whirled, drawing her bow and notching an arrow, the type of which she wasn't a hundred percent sure (as Green Arrow had told her, the key to being a successful superhero archer was to make good educated guesses while always pretending to know what the arrow in your hand did).

"Careful with that" came the playful voice of Robin, sitting on the fire escape a floor above her. "You might poke someone's eye out!"

"What are you doing here?" Artemis asked, lowering her bow and returning her arrow to her quiver.

"What?" asked Robin. "Can't a guy just stop by a friend's house?" He hopped down beside her. "I know you can't really appreciate this," he said, "but it's actually pretty convenient that the rest of the Team knows your identity. Means that I can stop pretending that I don't know where you live."

"That's moderately creepy" Artemis replied. "And how do you know where I- oh. Right. Batman."

Robin shrugged. "If it makes you feel any better, he didn't actually tell me anything about you. Had to dig it up myself. But it honestly wasn't difficult. I mean, your superhero alias is your first name, for crying out loud!"

"Yeah, yeah," said Artemis, annoyed. "Do you have a point, Boy Blunder, or are you just here to bug me?"

"Well, you seemed stressed and all after the whole, well, everything, and it seemed like you were going to end up punching _someone's_ face in. So I thought if you were going to patrol, we might as well do a team-up. You know, since we can acknowledge that we live in the same city now."

"And what if I tell you to go mind your own business and do it on my own?"

"Well, then I'd leave, of course" Robin replied. "But I'd have to take this back with me."

He gestured down into the alley below, where two motorcycles were parked.

"How did you bring that with you?" Artemis asked.

"Autopilot" Robin replied. "Look, are we going to patrol or not?"

Artemis frowned. This was not how she had planned the night to go.

On the one hand, she _really_ wanted to be alone right now. If Robin's normal behavior was anything to go by, he'd be needling her the entire night.

On the other hand, he was a member of the Team, he knew Gotham at least as well as she did and he'd bothered to come all the way out here.

Also, he was basically the only reason she was currently at home, not brainjacked and not replaced by her evil alternate-dimension counterpart. Surely that meant she owed him something.

She shrugged and smiled ever so slightly.

"Let's ride."

* * *

_Man, I am really terrible at setting up these one-month challenges at convenient times. Good thing I put in the two-month disclaimer!_

_Fun fact: Originally in this chapter, Zatanna and Zatara were going to go to Coney Island instead of hanging out on top of a skyscraper. Which, let's admit, most of us would do if we had magic too. _

_Oh, I forgot. When I said there weren't any important changes in the updated draft of WCS, there was one minor thing: The Light's operation in WCS now has a codename: Operation Guillotine._

_Proper epic codenames are important, okay?_

_Review Response Time:_

_BVC: I'm glad you think my fic is well-thought out (I assume the competition for Number 1 is that massive Season 3 fic I keep hearing about?) and my Supermartian is beautiful. That'll make it even grander when they eventually break up and M'gann starts dating an Atlantean._

_Ash9: It's actually relatively simple to set up this many plot points. You see, you start with your list of characters to kill off, and then... Well, I should probably stop talking now._

_I'm glad everyone else appreciates the level of set-up, because a) these arguments and therapy sessions take a ton of work and b) we've still got more to go._


	5. On The Town

**DISCLAIMER**: So, funny story... I was flying through space and I saw the ownership rights to _Young Justice_ about to fall into a black hole, so I went over and dragged them away from the event horizon, saving the franchise from oblivion at the cost of spending what turns out to have been several months in a time-slowed environment that was only a couple of seconds for me but much longer outside. And then, as soon as we were free, the ownership rights flew away from me and went elsewhere, thus preventing me from owning _Young Justice_.

Chapter 5: ...On The Town

**Gotham City**

**December 30, 18:42 EST**

Arkham Inmate #43021 sat quietly in his cell. It was a genuine padded cell. Those were usually reserved for patients at a high risk of hurting themselves, but he'd caused enough trouble with improvised shivs that no sharp objects nor potentially sharpenable objects were allowed near him.

The inmate remained still and silent, the sheer amount of time since his last... excitement having completely drained his energy and motivation, leaving him incredibly lethargic.

There was a knock on the door.

The inmate frowned slightly but otherwise did not move. This was... atypical. Arkham staff generally didn't knock.

The door's observation slot slid open, revealing a man standing outside the door. He was tall and lanky, and his face was obscured by shadow. Not that it mattered. If there was anyone in Gotham who couldn't identify him by sight, they didn't live at Arkham.

Nevertheless, his presence was unusual. Certainly against the rules.

Curious.

"What do you want?" the inmate asked, his voice dull and dispassionate.

"I have a proposition for you, Victor" the man replied.

"And why would I care?"

"Because, Victor" the man replied, "it gives you an opportunity to do the one thing you actually want to do."

Victor was silent for a minute.

"Go ahead" he said, his voice sounding no less monotone.

"Well, here's the thing, Victor. It's about Batsy."

"What a surprise. You, obsessed with the Batman."

"This is serious, Victor. Not only is he still foiling all of our plans, but he's not even caring anymore! We're not a threat to him. We're hardly even a nuisance. He barely gives us the time of day and a throat jab before running off into space with the Justice League. Look at what I had to do to get his attention last time! Join Vertigo's little 'league,' wreck several cities and hold the whole world hostage and that's enough to get him to send _sidekicks_ after us. SIDEKICKS!"

"My sympathies" said Victor, not sounding very sympathetic.

"He's forgotten his roots, Victor. He's forgotten all the people that made him who he is. And we need to fix that."

"What scheme do you have this time?" Victor asked. He didn't really care, but since he was going to be told anyways, he might as well get it over with.

"I've made a deal, Victor. With some very powerful people. They have given me an incredible opportunity. They have given US an incredible opportunity. We'll never get another shot quite like this, Victor. We need to exploit it to the fullest."

"Are these those 'Light' schemers that set you up with Vertigo? You know the reputation they've acquired throughout the underworld. They're good, but unless you bow down and kiss their ring, they'll crush you. Why don't you just stay out of their way and let them deal with the Justice League for us?"

"I know what they are like, Victor. I also know that if they eliminate the League there'll be nothing to keep them from being on top of the villain food chain. And that's unacceptable. Those killjoys have no class, no style. They're all business, no fun. The world _deserves_ better villains than that. The world deserves us! The Arkhamites! The Rogues' Gallery! Gotham's Nightmares!"

"Aren't the Flash's enemies called the Rogues?" Victor asked, not really caring either way.

"Yeah, well, they barely count as villains in the first place. The point is, I have just acquired a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get Batsy back, teach the Light what real supervillainy looks like and give Gotham City the night of its life, and I want to share it with all of my dearest friends."

"Are you certain they will uphold their end of the deal?" Victor asked.

"Oh, they most certainly will not. But they'll pretend for long enough. By the time they stop, it'll be too late. Now, are you with me or not?"

Victor leaned back in his cell. To be honest, he didn't really care either way. The Justice League had never been a problem for him - just the Batman. These kinds of schemes, however, tended not to end well for those involved. Especially given who he was talking to.

"Look," said Victor's guest, clearly fed up with waiting. "Here's the deal. I'm not asking you to join me in my quest to ensure the world has the quality villains it deserves or to do anything you wouldn't do anyways. I'm just going to leave this door open, as well as every door between here and the gatehouse. What you do after that is entirely up to you."

Victor shrugged.

The cell door creaked open. The man turned to walk away, but stopped, as if he'd just remembered something.

"Oh, and Victor? I hear Sarah's doing wonderfully. I know you've been thinking about her. You should drop by. I'm sure she'll be happy to see you."

The man disappeared with a chuckle.

Victor sat there for a moment, in the half-darkness of the cell. If he did what had just been suggested of him, he'd be nothing more than a pawn in an enormous global chess match he barely knew nor cared about.

On the other hand, he _had_ been promising Sarah that he'd visit her once he got the chance...

* * *

**Metropolis**

**December 30, 18:50 EST**

"This is... unexpected" Kaldur said.

"I agree" Batman replied. "We did not expect anything of this nature to be found inside of the Cape Chidley base."

"And you believe that she is who she says she is?" Kaldur asked.

"Yes" said Superman. Batman frowned.

"I don't believe anything without proof" said the Dark Knight. "But so far everything has checked out."

"If that is the case," Kaldur said, frowning, "then what do you intend to do?"

Batman was silent for a moment. "Given the extent to which the League is currently stretched thin, particularly with the upcoming orientation, we are considering leaving her with the Team for the time being."

Kaldur was silent. He had suspected as much.

"I told you it would be too much right now" said Superman. "I'm not essential for orientation. I'll..."

"No" said Kaldur. "I believe you may be correct, Batman. The Team may be shaken, but we are not broken. We can handle the truth. In fact, if the others learned that you had withheld this information from them, they would be furious, and I would be in agreement with them. It is abundantly clear that Vandal Savage and his organization are a significant threat, not just to the League but to the world as well. The only way they can be countered is if the Team and the League can trust one another. Otherwise we will merely be doing our enemies' work for them."

"But what about Superboy?" Superman asked. "Won't this make him feel...?"

"Inadequate?" Kaldur replied. "Perhaps. Overshadowed? Possibly. Replaced? I think not. You gravely underestimate him if you believe that the mere presence of a full-blooded Kryptonian will destroy his self-esteem, and you gravely underestimate the rest of us if you think we would treat him in such a way. Superboy will be harmed far more if this is kept from him."

"Your faith in your teammates is admirable, Kaldur'ahm" said Wonder Woman. "I hope that they will, in fact, live up to your expectations."

"Then I suppose it's decided?" Superman asked, his tone suggesting that he wasn't quite sure if this was a good idea or not.

"Before we do," Batman said, "there is one more thing. It is possible, and perhaps even probable, that this girl is a traumatized refugee from a destroyed planet. It is also possible that she is something more sinister. After the events of the last few days, we cannot risk Vandal Savage further infiltrating the League or the Team. This... 'Supergirl' is not a member of the Team. She is a guest, at least for the time being. She is not to be exposed to anything that could jeopardize League security. In time, it is possible that she could fully join the Team and perhaps eventually the League, but for now, she will need to prove herself. I do not want any repetitions of Cape Chidley. Submit to me a report on your thoughts on her behavior every few days." He paused briefly. "And, of course, ensure that she is unaware of this."

"Fear not, Batman" said the Atlantean. "I will keep a close eye on her."

* * *

"Wow" said Zatanna, standing in the library of the Hall of Justice. "I miss ALL the fun stuff."

"Trust me," M'gann replied, "it wasn't that fun."

"So, Canary...?"

"She went off after Arrow" Conner said, having resumed his favorite activity of clicking through television channels.

"Well, I bet THAT'S going to be a fun conversation" Zatanna said.

"I'm sure it'll be fine" Rocket half-lied. "More importantly, how are you feeling, girl?"

"Okay" Zatanna lied. "I've been adjusting."

"Are you certain that you'll be alright without me?" Zatara asked.

"Yes, dad" replied Zatanna, sounding much more confident than she actually was. "Besides, the Team'll keep an eye on me."

"Very well" said Zatara. "I will be up on the Watchtower helping with the orientation, but if you need anything, at any time, you can call me and I'll be straight down."

"I know, dad" said his daughter.

"I love you, Zatanna" said the elder magician, kissing her on the forehead.

Zatanna smiled. "Love you too, dad."

Zatara turned and entered the zeta tube.

"Recognize: Zatara 11."

Wolf stood up and approached Zatanna, but stopped a few feet away.

"Hey, boy" said Zatanna walking towards it. Wolf backed away, first one step, then two.

"Is something the matter?" Zatanna asked, reaching out to pet Wolf. The canine recoiled, but then held fast, seemingly against its better instincts. Zatanna rubbed it behind the ears.

"See boy?" Zatanna said, smiling. "Nothing to worry abo-"

A tiny bolt of electricity arced between her fingers. Wolf yelped and retreated, growling.

"What's wrong, Wolf?" asked Wally.

"What did you do to Wolf?" Conner shouted at the same time.

"Nothing, nothing!" insisted Zatanna, putting up her hands. "It was just a bit of static electricity. I'm fine! As is Wolf."

Conner frowned, but went back to watching the changing of channels. The others also seemed to be aware that this was rather unlikely, but went back to their conversations.

Zatanna clenched her fist in anger. At the rate her magics kept overloading, she was going to run out of excuses pretty fast.

Maybe she should have mentioned it to Canary.

* * *

_"Zatanna?" Black Canary asked._

_Zatanna blinked, startled._

_"Yes?" she asked._

_"You've been staring at your hand for the last two minutes" Canary said._

_"O-oh" Zatanna stuttered. "Sorry. I must have gotten distracted."_

_"This isn't the first time I've noticed you staring at yourself" Canary said. "Is something the matter?"_

_It was a stupid question, and they both knew it. OF COURSE__ something was the matter._

_"You know, it's kind of funny" Zatanna said, looking at her hand again. "We get used to a certain way things work. Our brain tells our hand to do something, and it does it. And why shouldn't it? After all, it's ours. It's a part of us."_

_She clenched her hand into a fist._

_"And then one day something happens and suddenly it's not your hand anymore. It's someone else's. You can look at it, you can tell it to do whatever you want, but it's not going to listen. You are trapped. Paralyzed. Speechless."_

_Zatanna's shoulders drooped._

_"Helpless. Completely and utterly helpless."_

_"The fear of being helpless is one of the most primal fears we have" Canary said. "It's nothing to be ashamed of."_

_"I'm not ashamed" Zatanna replied. "But that doesn't mean I'm not still scared."_

_She held up her right hand, her ring and middle finger extended. Each one crackled slightly with energy - one red, and one yellow. As her fingers moved slightly together, the energies began to arc. When they finally touched, there was a white flash and a small crack, like microscopic thunder._

_"Everyone's been talking like this whole possession thing's over. It's not. Tala's still in here. So is Nabu. They are inside of ME. For the moment they seem dormant, but I have no idea how long that will last. If and when they do wake up again, they'll both try to take control. Yeah, they hate each other more than they hate me, and so they'll probably step on each other's toes, but that doesn't make the idea any less terrifying."_

_"I know that it seems-"_

_"I could lose control again at any moment! ANY! SECOND! And I don't know if I'll get any warning. Any second now, I could be in a mental struggle for my life, the lives of my friends and maybe even the entire world. I can't relax, can't let myself get too distracted, heck, I'm barely managing to get any sleep, which now that I think about it is probably just making my chances of winning a willpower fight even lower."_

_Canary frowned. "If insomnia's becoming a problem, I can prescribe you some pills for that. I'd need your father's approval of course, not the least of which is because I have no idea what effect they would have on your system as it now stands."_

_"Thanks" Zatanna muttered, looking at the ground. "We'll see."_

_"Zatanna," Canary said, leaning forwards enough to put her hand on the girl's knee, "I am going to be completely honest with you. There is absolutely nothing in my training or experience that really compares to what you are currently dealing with. With the idea of another person... inside your mind."_

_"That's the thing" Zatanna said. "They aren't even people. Not how we understand them. They aren't human. They aren't even Martian, Kryptonian, Thanagarian... any of the alien species we're used to. Astral Lords are very... different. They're ageless, they're used to things of a different plane of existence, and they only really care about one thing: spreading Order or spreading Chaos."_

_"All I can tell you, Zatanna, is that you have been incredibly brave throughout this whole ordeal. Most adults would be hard-pressed to deal with this situation, and you've handled it as well as anyone could. The Team is alive because of your actions. Your father is alive and free because of your actions. I am alive because of your actions."_

_Canary paused._

_"So, I just want to say, thank you, from all of us. We believe in you. And we'll do everything in our power to help you get through this. Okay?"_

_Zatanna smiled. Not much, but a little bit._

_"Thank you" she said._

_Zatanna stood up and started to leave, only to notice a pale blue figure out of the corner of her eye._

_Whirling around, she saw Greta Hayes standing in the window, waving._

_Black Canary turned to face whatever Zatanna was looking at, but saw nothing._

_"Is something the matter, Zatanna?"_

_Zatanna took several seconds to respond._

_"Uh... no. Everything's fine."_

_"Zatanna, is there something else you would like to talk about?"_

_Zatanna thought for a second. Like Black Canary really needed murdered-by-her-own-brother ghost girl on top of the entirety of the Team's actual problems. On the other hand, who better to help a __murdered-by-her-own-brother ghost girl than a superhero therapist?_

_"I, uh..._ _It's a secret." She blushed. Perhaps another time._

_"You know you don't have to keep secrets from me" Canary said._

_"I know" Zatanna replied._

_She walked out of the room, completely silent._

* * *

"Two targets on the left" Robin shouted.

"Easy" Artemis replied, notching and firing a pair of arrows without slowing down. The two muggers were so startled by the sudden net pinning them to the alley wall that they didn't even begin to struggle until the heroes' motorcycles were several blocks away and their intended victim had begun calling the police.

"That's our fourth takedown tonight, and it's not even midnight yet" Robin said. "Guess thugs don't take New Year's off, do they?"

"I can live with that" Artemis replied. "I need some guys to hit, anyways."

"Because of Tigress?" Robin asked.

Artemis didn't reply, instead checking her quiver and swinging her motorcycle into another one of Gotham's narrow side streets.

"Wanna talk about it?" asked Robin.

"No" Artemis replied. "Possible robbery on the left"

"I see it" Robin responded. "Wanna buzz 'em?"

Artemis grunted and drove straight towards the men.

"Look out!" one of them shouted as they bolted, dropping their crowbars and fleeing the ATM. As Artemis swerved between them, she stuck out her bow, clubbing two of the three men. A bolas from Robin caught the last one as the two heroes sped off into the night.

Robin sighed. Getting Artemis to open up was proving more difficult than he'd hoped.

"If it makes you feel any better, Roy was wrong about what he said."

"No kidding, Sherlock" Artemis replied. She thought for a second. "But it is nice to hear you of all people say that."

"What do you mean?" Robin asked, slightly confused.

"Well, you _are_ a bit... callous sometimes" Artemis said.

"Callous?" said Robin, half confused, half offended. "I'm not callous."

"You kind of are."

"Name one time."

"That time when we ran into each other at the Gotham City zeta tube and you made me improvise that ridiculous spelling bee excuse when you _knew_ that I live here the entire time."

"I wasn't supposed to know your hometown! What did you want me to do, not act like I was suspicious? That would have tipped _you_ off."

Artemis frowned. "You could have just dropped it after my first excuse. You didn't have to keep digging."

Robin started to respond, but the archer cut him off.

"Though, in your defense, you _are_ a thirteen-year-old boy, and all boys that age are horrible people by default, so it's not exactly your fault."

Robin was going to challenge that claim, but then he thought about his typical classmate at school.

"Fair enough" he said with a smile.

They rode on in silence for a little bit.

"But more than that," Artemis said, not even sure if she was talking to him or herself, "it's nice to see that you have emotions too."

"What do you mean?" Robin asked.

"In combat, on missions, you're always Mr. Cool. You always have a plan, a gadget and a giggle, no matter how tough things look. Injustice League plant creature? No problem. Wake up in the middle of Bialya with no memory of how you got there? Spend the day wiping out goons. Fire-spewing robots ambush us at home and nearly drown us repeatedly? You're tough, clever and traught, while I end up in a ventilation shaft, curled up in a wet ball of panic."

"You also got out of the wet ball of panic, took a masterful arrow shot and saved all of our lives" Robin pointed out.

"Yes," Artemis admitted. "But you didn't end up in the ball in the first place. And I... I guess I... respect that."

Robin chuckled that annoying little chuckle of his.

"Are you saying you look up to me?"

"No, shorty" snapped Artemis in the instinctively abrasive manner she adopted whenever she was suppressing emotions.

She smiled a bit.

"But, I mean, you _were_ the first."

"The first?"

"The first sidekick. The first teen hero. The one who showed the world that butt-kicking and spandex weren't adults-only."

She looked down slightly. "I suppose one could say that you were as much an inspiration for me as Green Arrow was."

Robin smiled. "Does this mean I get to add every heroic thing you've ever done to my personal 'good things I have done' list?"

If they weren't both on speeding motorcycles at the time, Artemis would have smacked him.

"But just because I was the first doesn't mean I had to be the first" Robin said. "If we've proven anything over the past few months, it's that there is a lot of untapped crime-fighting power in today's youth. Aqualad could have done it. Or Zatanna. Or Conner."

He thought for a second.

"Okay, probably not him. But the point still stands."

"As for avoiding the ball of panic..." Robin thought about it for a second. "I guess the key is probably experience more than anything else. I had four years of experience prior to the attack on the Cave. You had a couple of months of lower-intensity stuff at best. Any remotely normal person would have reacted like you did."

"Are you saying you aren't normal?" Artemis asked.

"Not remotely" Robin replied. "None of us are 'normal,' Team or Justice League. No normal or sane person would do what we do, day after day, night after night, constantly putting our lives on the line for ungrateful strangers we'll never even talk to. We're freaks, losers, aliens, weirdos and one or two people whom the world has hurt so badly that we feel the burning need to go out there and try, however futile it may seem, to keep it from hurting anyone else. So that no one ends up like either of us ever again."

He paused, and Artemis might have thought she saw a slight tear in the corner of his eye, had they not been speeding on motorcycles, his mask and motorcycle helmet covering most of his eyes and that idea in general just being utterly ridiculous.

The radio crackled. The Batcomputer program that had been monitoring the GCPD radios had discovered something it deemed of interest to their patrol.

"Roger, confirmed 5-81. SuDTraD signal indicates Inmate #43021, Victor Zsasz is no longer on Arkham Island. I repeat, Victor Zsasz has escaped from Arkham Asylum."

Robin and Artemis looked at each other.

"Duty calls" said Robin.

* * *

_Little did Artemis and Robin realize that those three guys were just withdrawing some cash from their bank accounts before returning to their all-night crowbar convention._

_Jeez, I am bad at these one-month runs. But now I have to since, it seems, the real thing may be coming back. Yep, Young Justice lives!_

_*ducks under desk as cheering shatters nearby glass*_

_So, with that big news out there, I feel I have no choice but to get out there and get this done._

_So, it's time for Operation One-Month-Run 3.0. Third time's the charm, right?_

_Right?_

_To try and improve this third-time-charminess, I am attempting to use this story as my first ever actually-in-November NaNoWriMo. As you can see, I'm not off to a GREAT start, but these run-up chapters take forever. And, I mean, you don't really care if I do 50,000 words in a month. You care if I put any new chapters up. At least I hope you do._

_I'm not trying to ship these two, I swear. The conversations just end up like this entirely on their own._

_Can I just say that it's my personal belief as the one-and-only author that Zatanna is actually the Team member to suffer the most traumatic experience in the first story? I mean, no one else had a particularly good time, but geez. Hey, at least this time around she gets to have some screentime of actually her, and not just her possessed body. Progress!_

_Review Response Time:_

_BVC: There was literally an episode ("Alpha Male," two if you count "Drop-Zone") about how badly the Season 1 Team needs Kaldur as their center. I think by Season 2 they were much better off (Nightwing had really grown into his role and Superboy was a LOT more functional, not to mention they'd all grown to trust each other more thanks to "Usual Suspects") and so could survive his loss._

_Yes, Canary is worried about keeping the Team off duty, not Batman. It is my belief that the sentence I used was grammatically accurate, but I have reworded it to make its meaning more apparent. Thank you for your concern._

_Get back together? Don't be ridiculous! None of them are going to live THAT long!_

_Also, this was a review on the original fic, not this one, but presumably it'll get read at some point:_

_FadeWrites: That's very interesting about comics Rocket. I can see, given her backstory, how she might act like that. For my Rocket, though, I, having never actually read a comic with Rocket in it, had to base her entirely off of her appearance in the episodes "Usual Suspects" and "Auld Acquaintance." From that I got the impression of a cheerful, energetic, decently competent but still not terribly experienced hero. ("Is it always like this?") Given that she's on her first op with the Team and everything immediately goes to hell down to her getting depowered and then her getting thrown in the middle of the mole stuff having been told none of it beforehand (and not knowing half of the villains), acting uber-confident would be rather strange. That said, her belt's working again, so let's see if that'll change things up now..._


End file.
